Leak testing techniques according to which closed containers are introduced in a test cavity which, after having sealingly been closed, is lowered in pressure by a suctioning pump are known. If the container is not leaking, then once a predetermined pressure has been reached in the test cavity and thus in the surrounding of a container to be tested, this pressure will be kept substantially constant. If a leak is provided in an area of the container, wherein air is entrapped, a flow of air out of the container will lead to a rise of the surrounding pressure. If a leak is present in the area of the container where filling good is entrapped, the question whether such leak will lead to a significant rise of the surrounding pressure is largely dependent on the kind of filling good as of its viscosity, whether solid particles are present in the filling good and, obviously, on the largeness of the leak.
Different approaches have become known to accurately detect leaks at such product-filled containers, irrespective whether the leak is present in an air entrapping container area or in a container area covered with filling good. One such approach which is the topic of the co-pending European patent application EP-A-0 791 814 and the U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/862,993 proposes to provide an impedance measurement, specifically a resistance measurement, just adjacent to the outer wall of the container by means of an electrode arrangement: As soon as liquid emerges from a leak it will contact a respective pair of impedance measuring electrodes and lead to a significant change of impedance measured between such electrodes.
Nevertheless, such an approach necessitates considerable additional expenditure with respect to provision of the impedance measuring arrangement in each test cavity, especially of a multi-cavity in-line inspection machine and does not enable detection of very small leaks far below of one micron and largely independent from container shape and kind of filling good.